Combating homelessness turns to prevention – pilot for apartment insurance starts
The focus on reducing homelessness is turning to prevention in accordance with the programme approved by the Government. One aspect of prevention is the new insurance coverage for apartments, which will be piloted in roughly 2,000 supportive housing units starting from late autumn. The insurance improves the opportunities of people who have lost their credit rating to find rental housing and will make it more attractive for lessors to rent out housing.
The action plan for preventing homelessness (2016–2019), approved by the Government, aims to identify problems leading to homelessness as early as possible. To do this, the housing, social, health and employment services, which are now divided into sectors, need to form a client-oriented service network that crosses borders. Housing guidance must be made available to service points with a low threshold. For example, the Ohjaamo service points for young people that are operating in several cities are also investigating the housing situation.
The programme connects the work on homelessness to the prevention of social exclusion.
“Preventing homelessness is cheaper than managing it. Every time a person meets a service system, their housing security must be ensured,” says Kimmo Tiilikainen, Minister of Agriculture and the Environment.
The state will draw up agreements on creating strategies to prevent homelessness by the end of the year with the cities of Espoo, Vantaa, Tampere, Lahti, Jyväskylä and Kuopio, as well as interested peri-urban municipalities.
In addition, at least 2,500 new dwellings or places in housing will be allocated to homeless people or groups at risk of becoming homeless by 2019. In the Helsinki metropolitan area approximately 1,700 dwellings will be allocated. While in Tampere, Lahti, Kuopio, Oulu and Jyväskylä the goal is to allocate at least 800 dwellings or places in housing by 2019.
The programme presents a total of 20 different measures to prevent homelessness.
Several lessors will join the pilot project for apartment insurance
Many lessors require tenants to have household insurance, and this must include especially liability insurance. However, insurance companies are not obliged to grant insurance to people with a record of repeated defaults in payment.
LähiTapiola Pirkanmaa is providing new apartment insurance to lessors. A pilot to test the insurance will be carried out in approximately 2,000 supported housing units owned by non-profit rental housing lessors and service providers. The lessor takes out the insurance policy for the apartment, and so far many lessors are interested in joining the pilot. The insurance provides compensation for problems such as damage to the fixtures of dwellings due to vandalism and damage to third parties due to negligence, such as water damage not covered by the real estate insurance of housing companies.
People with payment defaults related to dwellings and housing are included in the group with the most severe difficulties finding housing. Those in an especially difficult position include people needing mental health rehabilitation, people released from prison who have become homeless, people who have lost their homes due to arrears of rent or disruptive behaviour, as well as asylum seekers.
- (Ministry of the Environment
Inquiries:
Peter Fredriksson, Senior Specialist, Ministry of the Environment, tel. +358 (0)295 250 066, [email protected]
Pekka Matilainen, Rapporteur, tel. +358 (0)44 355 6125, [email protected]
Aki Selkee, Business Director, LähiTapiola Pirkanmaa, tel. +358 (0)400 781 697